Is Permittivity Equivalent to EM Conductivity?

Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
30 replies · 10K views
Saw said:
So in this case we get division by zero?

Provided that [itex]\hat{\sigma}(\omega) \neq o(\omega), \ \omega \rightarrow 0[/itex]. This is true for conductors, but not for insulators (dielectrics).

EDIT:
Remember, we are working wIth the Fourier transforms of these quantities in the frequency domain. This simply tells us that there ought to be a pole of the dielectric response function at [itex]\omega = 0[/itex]. Going back to time domain, we get:
[tex] \epsilon''(t -t') = \frac{\sigma}{\epsilon_0} \, \theta(t - t')[/tex]
which gives the following relation between the polarization and the electric field:
[tex] \mathbf{P}(t) = \sigma \, \int_{-\infty}^{t}{\mathbf{E}(t') \, dt'}[/tex]
or, the current density due to bound charges is:
[tex] \mathbf{J}(t) = \dot{\mathbf{P}}(t) = \sigma \, \mathbf{E}(t)[/tex]
But, this is just Ohm's law in differential form, provided the "bound" charges are the free ones, as is the case for conductors.
 
Last edited: